[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: Using trees felled onsite in building process

[Lawrence Lile]

We don't need no steenkin' sawmills!  What I did was to fell some
cedars, peel them, sand them down, varnish them, square the ends, and
have six guys help me set them up on a wall.  I did structural
calculations on them first (several different ways) and determined that
they were about 3X bigger than they needed to be to hold up the floor
above.  They look great! 


If you really want to square up your logs, and you don't want to use a
sawmill, you can always fool around with chainsaws and guides.  I shaved
the tops of the logs flat with a chainsaw and a guide made out of long
2X4's nailed onto the log.  At first I had a fancy jig I made to clamp
onto the saw, later I dispensed with the fancy jig and just followed the
edge of the 2X4 by eye.  Later we cleaned the tops up with a handheld
power planer.  

Most species are usable in houses.  Oaks present some concern because
they eventually get some kind of beetle in the wood that will weaken
them.  It may take many many years for this to happen.  Inspectors start
frothing at the mouth in some areas when they hear about oak.  Many
people successfully use oak in houses, don't shy away from it, but plan
it so the beam *could* be replaced without open-heart house surgery
sometime in the future.  





Lawrence Lile, PE, LEED AP
Project Solutions Engineering